Archives for February 2014

Excerpt: Many businesses (including law firms) and the city of New Orleans were not prepared for disaster. With the benefit of hindsight, it quickly became clear that the disaster recovery plan that was implemented relied on older technologies that were outdated, unreliable, and filled with misguided assumptions about the ability of critical infrastructure to survive and operate after a disaster. The many failures of that plan provide us with lessons that can be learned from when designing and implementing our own disaster recovery plans today.

#SenseiSherlock was happy to help future Fairfax Law Foundation president Laurie Dolson help new Board members to understand the Foundation and its philanthropic activities at The Wine House (no wine at lunch though!) in Fairfax.

Sharon Nelson and John Simek of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. have an article in the GPSOLO publication of The American Bar Association titled: FAMILY LAW: Common Ethical Pitfalls of Digital Marketing.

Lawyers can inadvertently get into trouble with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, website optimization and a variety of other marketing tools in the digital age. A few bad apples may flaunt the rules while other attorneys are simply trying to figure out what is proper and what is not.

This article contains common problems that are associated with social media from an ethical viewpoint and what you can do to avoid them.

What you post on online the data may live forever as it has now become routine to archive someone else’s blog or website. Removing unethical information from your own site does not necessarily remove the evidence of the offense. Digital marketing is here to stay so it is important for lawyers to continue to educate themselves about these new tools and if they are uncertain how to proceed they should seek ethical guidance from their state bars. The best way to avoid difficulties is to stay informed and exercise caution on the web.

In preparation for the National Conference on Divorce in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 24th and 25th at the Bellagio Hotel, Sharon Nelson was interviewed by Family Lawyer Magazine.

Sharon talked about new developments in technology that are being used by spouses to spy on one another and how electronic evidence can be properly used by lawyers. Smartphones and the many types of digital forensics that they can provide, from text messages to e-mail, and much more will be discussed at the conference. Other areas that will be reviewed will be expert witnesses, social media, and authentication of evidence.

Sharon Nelson and members of the Virginia State Bar attended the Midyear Legal Seminar in Paris, France last November. The attendees took a side trip to visit Omaha Beach, one of the five sites for the famous D-Day landing in World War II. It was the largest amphibious invasions in world history and took place along the Normandy coast. The steep cliffs were beautiful, but everyone knew the perils faced by theUnited States Army Rangers who had to scale these cliffs on D-Day.

The Virginia State Bar members had a beautiful butsomber visit to the site, with much thought and reflection about the brave soldiers who gave their to protect our freedom. This was such a brutal battle that many of the warriors were not able to be identified and that is why there are 307 tombstones that bear the inscription, “Here rests in honored glory a fallen comrade, known but to God.”

These are excerpts from John Heckman’s review of the 2014 Small Firm Legal Technology Guide.

“This is the seventh yearly edition for the Solo and Small Firm Technology Guide by Sharon Nelson, John Simek and Michael Maschke, with a contribution on the PaperLESS Office by Ross Kodner written before his untimely death last summer. A very useful addition is a chapter by Jennifer Ellis on social media and in particular security, privacy and ethics considerations in using them. There is also an Appendix on the “iPad for Litigators” by Tom Mighell and Paul Unger.

“Why should you read this book? There are two reasons. Obviously if you are starting up a small firm or considering upgrades it provides invaluable advice. There is a second reason, perhaps even more important. As Jim Calloway notes in his introduction, the ABA revised its Model Rules to require that lawyers be competent with the technology tools they must use today. If you sometimes wonder whether the technology you use is actually productive for your firm or if you are losing ground to competing firms, reading this book will bring you up to speed and give you a pretty good idea of where your firm stands from a technology point of view, even if you choose not to make changes.”

“The book is available from the ABA store. If you are starting an office, are at a point where you need to make a decision about where to go next, or just to want to keep up to date on what is currently available, this will be an invaluable primer.”

From malware and hackers to BYOD and TYOD, the biggest threat to law firm data could be the attorneys themselves. On this episode of Digital Detectives, hosts Sharon D. Nelson and John W. Simek interview data expert Ben M. Schorr and discover complex new threats to data security and the simplest solutions to reduce them.

Mr. Schorr is a technologist and Chief Executive Officer for Roland Schorr & Tower, a professional consulting firm headquartered in Flagstaff, Arizona with offices in Hawaii and Oregon. He is also the author of several books and articles on technology, including The Lawyer’s Guide to Microsoft Outlook, The Lawyer’s Guide to Microsoft Word, and Microsoft OneNote in One Hour for Lawyers. He’s been a Microsoft MVP for more than 15 years and involved with management and technology for more than 20 years.

#SenseiSherlock enjoyed the company of Fairfax CASA’s Executive Director Lisa Banks at a celebration on Sunday and urges everyone to sign up for the annual Run for the Children (race, walk or volunteer) on May 3rd!